New ‘Sinister’ Images Amp Up the Creepiness

Back in 2005, director Scott Derrickson scored a surprise hit with The Exorcism of Emily Rose, reigning in $144 million worldwide against a $19 million production budget. The filmmaker followed that with the critically-panned remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (remember our review?).

Derrickson returns to horror with October’s Sinister. We’ve already seen the eerie trailer for the film, and courtesy of, we have some new stills from the low-budget scarefest starring Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio.

In the film, Hawke stars as a true-crime writer who moves his family into a house where a young family was killed. Before long, he stumbles across the proof of the house’s dark past, only to discover an evil force living within a collection of old film reels. The first photo below shows Michael Hall D’Addario – who plays Hawke’s son – in the grasp of the house’s dark forces – or so it appears. Meanwhile, the second still shows Hawke – alongside Juliet Rylance as his wife – carrying the child afterwards.

Notice that both stills feature an aged appearance to replicate the look of worn-out film. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 double-feature Grindhouse employed a similar technique to simulate the experience of watching an old 1970s exploitation film, and Sinister appears to be going for the same style – albeit to comment on the current “found-footage” trend in horror films.

After starring in such hits as Training Day and Gattaca, Hawke hasn’t appeared in a major blockbuster in a while – and narrowly missed out on a brief role in the new Total Recall – so his starring role here is welcome. Sinister comes from the producer of the very creepyInsidious, and if these stills are any indication, it could very well become one of this fall’s sleeper hits – especially given the clever way its plot centers on found-footage films.

Sinister creeps its way into theaters on October 5, but eager horror aficionados can visit SeeSinisterFirst for details about early showings.